By Ralph E. Moore Jr.
Special to the AFRO
rmoore@afro.com
Too little is known of the Baltimore man who broke the color barrier as the first Black undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), but his name will be well-known soon.
Fred Isadore Scott began working towards his degree at JHU in 1945 and graduated in 1950.
Johns Hopkins University is now officially honoring Frederick Isadore Scott by naming one of the two Charles Commons towers in his honor.
In the near future, students moving into Charles Commons, a student resident hall, will know one of the buildings as Fred Scott Tower, located at the corner of 33rd and Charles St.
Inside the building, prominently displayed, will be Scott’s full name and information on his life and legacy. Only those with written invitations are invited to the building naming and the reception following it.
The Fred Scott Tower naming ceremony will take place in late September in front of the building on the northeast corner of its cross streets.
When he was a high school senior, Scott took a dare from several friends and called the registrar’s office of JHU from a payphone.
He was seeking admission, almost in jest, because he had already been accepted at Pennsylvania State University (PSU).
Reportedly, the phone conversation went something like this:
Scott began with one question.
“Do you let Negroes into your school?” he asked.
The response he got from the official on the other end of the line:
“I don’t know, we haven’t had anyone apply.”
So Fred Scott applied.
He took the entrance exam, passed it with flying colors– no pun intended– and was accepted into Johns Hopkins.
Scott started in the university’s undergraduate school on Feb. 1, 1945. He had graduated from Frederick Douglass High School with honors the day before. He had to adjust to the all-White student and staff environment and endure the pressure of being the only Black student on campus.
With his daily presence on campus, Scott changed Johns Hopkins forever.
Scott was a founding member of Baltimore’s first interracial fraternity, Beta Sigma Tau and served on the JHU Honor Commission, reviewing the cases of those who may have violated the honor code.
One of his big disappointments, during his Hopkins career, was not getting a part in any of the JHU Barnstormers’ plays. He was always told there were no parts available to him in the campus’s theatre productions.
Scott switched majors from mechanical to chemical engineering. But after a year at Johns Hopkins he was drafted into the Army.
Upon completing his tour of duty, he returned to the university in 1947 and completed his course of studies, graduating in 1950 with his degree in chemical engineering.
He went into a highly successful career in engineering and various business ventures which started with his wife, Viola Fowlkes, whom he married in 1949.
The annual Fred Scott Brigade Dinner will take place inside the newly named building.
Present will be JHU African-American alumni, members of Fred Scott’s family, some City officials and representatives from the JHU administration and staff. That event will also be by invitation only.
The Fred Scott Brigade is a 25-year-old organization of African-American alumni from all of Johns Hopkins schools and divisions.
Founded by Mike Smith, Gail Williams and Warren (Nish) Boyd in 1997, the group has met consistently each year in reunion in Fred Scott’s honor.
What began as little more than a prank call changed the trajectory of not only Scott’s life, but all of the Black JHU graduates that would come after him.
Scott had the courage to take the first step.
And that’s how integration began at the Johns Hopkins University, one of the world’s premier institutions for higher learning– all thanks to Fred Scott.
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